JAJT said:

I imagine this is how some mentor's feel. Spend a bunch of time doing a thankless job then get slapped in the face by being asked to spend more time fighting the advice of other's despite the proven results you've already provided.

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PatrickP said:

Funny. 14 years ago my mother was buying and selling on Ebay like a pro. She was well into her 70s at the time.

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JAJT said:

15 years ago I spent half my free time on the phone with relatives fixing their computer issues by phone. It took me a year to decide to be selectively ignorant with these time-wasters. I went from bragging about knowing EVERYTHING about computers to being the "Hmm.. damn, I have no idea" guy.

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JAJT said:

15 years ago I spent half my free time on the phone with relatives fixing their computer issues by phone. It took me a year to decide to be selectively ignorant with these time-wasters. I went from bragging about knowing EVERYTHING about computers to being the "Hmm.. damn, I have no idea" guy.

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ChickenHawk said:

I Will Not Read Your F-ing Script - New York - News - Runnin' Scared
"...In return for you not asking me to read your f-ing script, I will not ask you to wash my f-ing car, or take my f-ing picture, or represent me in f-ing court, or take out my f-ing gall bladder, or whatever the F it is that you do for a living."


If nothing else, the comments are pretty darn interesting.

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... said:

But I will not read your F*cking script.

At this point, you should walk away, firm in your conviction that I'm a d!ck. But if you're interested in growing as a human being and recognizing that it is, in fact, you who are the dick in this situation, please read on.

Yes. That's right. I called you a d!ck. Because you created this situation. You put me in this spot where my only option is to acquiesce to your demands or be the bad guy. That, my friend, is the very definition of a dick move.

.

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... said:

I'm a software engineer by day (27 years), writer by night/weekends (9 scripts - 1 produced) and people ask me all the time to fix their Windows systems.

I used to help people because I want to be a nice guy and I know more than 99% of the people on the planet about technology, but after a while I got sick and tired of dealing with doing free work on my own (limited) time.

My new response to that request is "Get a Mac."

I too have become a d!ck. And you dear public/friends/family have made me such.

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... said:

the other John B. misses the point. Professional writers, even ones breaking in, act like professional writers. you can turn them down and you are not being a dick because they understand you've determined there is nothing in it for you as a professional to read their material. they don't feel you owe it to them as a friend. they believe that sooner or later someone will be impressed with them enough as a person -- with their intelligence, dedication, knowledge of the film biz or what have you -- to invest a bit of time to find out if their writing is equally impressive. Huge difference between that and asking me to read your script, via my mother, because you happen to be her hairdresser.

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... said:

He's writing so bluntly as a contrast to the fact that he has to be polite to people who are endlessly asking him to effectively be their script editor for free. It's a fair point, viscerally made. And the reality is that most people can't write and a lot of people who are trying to write, just don't get the message. .......

Anyway, I found the article therapeutic. I've been professional comedy writer for about ten years and people do ask me to read their stuff - but I live in Britain where people are a lot less pushy. So it doesn't happen that often. And sometimes I offer. And sometimes I don't.

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miked_d said:

@chickenhawk - i don't know where you've been recently but i loved that article. don't know why i didn't see that post before.

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JAJT said:

15 years ago I spent half my free time on the phone with relatives fixing their computer issues by phone. It took me a year to decide to be selectively ignorant with these time-wasters. I went from bragging about knowing EVERYTHING about computers to being the "Hmm.. damn, I have no idea" guy.

I recently made a "blue-moon" exception for a friend of mine. He was given a terribly bloated, slow and REALLY screwed up computer by his father when he moved out. I told him I'd completely format and overhaul it for him.

I spent hours of my time formatting, re-installing windows, figuring out unknown drivers, installing a ton of "must have" software and felt extremely proud of myself at the end. I was excited to give him back this pristine computer that used to spend 10 minutes opening up internet explorer but now booted in 15 seconds flat.

Within 1 F*cking week he let his father come by and install some retarded anti-virus software that slowed the computer to a 10 minute boot-up time and dragged it to a crawl for all normal operation. I asked my buddy why the HELL he would allow the SPECIFIC individual who messed up the computer the first time to so much as check his email on this machine. I was told "Oh, well it's free and he has a family license and it has a firewall - I really need a firewall". I nearly shat a brick.

I explained to him very logically and calmly why he should remove it and never listen to his father again. My buddy then goes and talks to his brother (also a moron) who said their dad was absolute right and not to listen to me. My friend comes back to me and says "can you show me proof of why I should do what you say? My brother is citing article A, B and C". I told him I already spent hours on his issues up to this point and have no interest in debating his brother through proxy.

I've now added him to the "Hmm.. damn, I have no idea" list.

I imagine this is how some mentor's feel. Spend a bunch of time doing a thankless job then get slapped in the face by being asked to spend more time fighting the advice of other's despite the proven results you've already provided.

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